essay

Topic Statement and Definition:

Your topic is related to the art work or thematic focus of your paper. You should have a thesis statement

which more specifically tells the reader what you intend to do or discuss in your paper. Your topic

should have been approved by me before you begin working on the paper itself.

Description of Artwork/Artist Chosen for Paper:

Whether you deal with a theme or a specific art work, you should describe it in detail and the reasons

for studying it. This is usually part of the introduction, following from your initial statement and

paragraph about the overall focus of the paper.

Context and Analysis:

Context includes several things and varies depending on your topic. In the case of an art historical or

humanities paper, the context may be material about the historic period in question, the artist’s

background, previous approaches to analysis of your question, interpretations of the work, and so on. It

should only be included if it helps to explain your subsequent analysis of the art work. Your paper is an

in-depth study of a single work, the analysis is precisely that: an analysis of the art work, from a formal

point of view (what it looks like, its composition, its style, its visual characteristics) and from the point of

view of the interpretations you have chosen to focus on.

Significance and Conclusion:

Here you discuss the importance, meaning and value of the particular artwork or thematic question

chosen for this paper. This is also where you should include your own point of view which is either

related to these positions or rejects them for reasons related to their failure as critical theories. This is

an important part of the paper precisely because it is where you tell the reader what you, in contrast to

other people, think.

Writing Style and Organization:

• Grammar is correct; spelling is correct

• Paper is well-organized and understandable

• More than one source of information is used to arrive at a new point of view

• Proper citations with footnotes and quotation marks, when appropriate; very long quotations should

be summarized and given credit

Do not plagiarize! You are allowed to use the ideas of other writers – if you give a citation. Putting it into

your own words is important and is more than just changing one word. But you should avoid quoting

needlessly. Basic facts do not need to be quoted; neither do descriptions. You can describe things with

your own words. If the description you read brought your attention to something you hadn’t noticed,

then tell the reader that.

Format:

Paper should be 12 pt font, standard margins, double spaced. It should be at least 5 pages total. Include

a title page and give your paper a title. Page length does not include Title pages or Bibliography.

Pictures:

You are encouraged to include images in your paper, however, these will not count against paper length.

Make sure your images are labeled appropriately.

Notes and Bibliography Examples:

You must include at least 4 Bibliographic sources in your paper. Your textbook can count as 1 source.

Ideally, the remaining sources will be a mix of formats (journals, books, websites, video). Use Wikipedia

as a resource, but DO NOT cite Wikipedia. Follow the citations to find original articles, websites, etc.

The Chicago Manual Documentation style is described below. You may use your textbook as one source

for your paper. Other sources can include academic articles, art books, museum websites, etc. You may

use Wikipedia as a reference, however, do not cite Wikipedia by itself. Refer to the link and citations in

the Wiki page for additional external sources.

Book: One author

Note style:

1. Wendy Doniger, Splitting the Difference (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 65.

Bibliography style:

Doniger, Wendy. Splitting the Difference. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Note the differences here – in particular, the note has a page number at the end. The bibliographic entry

does not, assuming that you used more than one page in the book.

Two authors

Note:

6. Guy Cowlishaw and Robin Dunbar, Primate Conservation Biology (Chicago: University of Chicago

Press, 2000), 104–7.

Bibliography:

Cowlishaw, Guy, and Robin Dunbar. Primate Conservation Biology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

2000.

Article in a print journal

Note:

8. John Maynard Smith, “The Origin of Altruism,” Nature 393 (1998): 639.

Bib:

Smith, John Maynard. “The Origin of Altruism.” Nature 393 (1998): 639–40.

Resources for further types of citations:

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html

Presentation Guidelines:

• Presentations will be 6-8 minutes in length. You will discuss the main points of your paper –

presenting the artist and artwork you chose to the class.

• Prepare a paper or notecards with your talking points

• Have a PowerPoint containing at least the artwork you’ll be talking about. You may also include

other images such as photos of the artist, process or related work. You may show related

content such as video however, make sure the clips are short and be prepared to talk over them

if necessary. Be conscious of the time requirement. Do not use video to explain your point for

you. This is your research topic so be prepared to present it verbally.

• Practice your presentation and make sure you are staying within the time limit.

• Be excited about your topic! If you’re excited, we will be more interested in hearing about it.

Presentation Day:

Presentations will be selected in a random order so you need to arrive to class each day during

Presentation Week ready to go since you do not know which day you will be presenting. If you are called

to do your presentation and you are not present that day or are not prepared to give your talk, you will

lose points. We will take a moment after each presentation for the audience to ask questions.